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I am Perry Peterson, a retired auditor and tax accountant. My wife Valeta and I live along the front range of the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Please note: some of the links in older postings on this website may have expired by the time you see them.

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December 28, 2017

A British blogger and mother of a toddler said she’s found “subversive messages” in the children’s television show “Thomas & Friends,” calling it racist and harmful to children.

The show about a locomotive on a mythical island was inspired by the Railway Series of books written by British minister William Awdry and his son. But instead of a fantasy tale of Thomas the Tank Engine and his trials and errors with other trains and with the conductor, Tracy Van Slyke sees an evil storyline that elevates railroad barons while squashing their underlings.

“When the good engines pump out white smoke and the bad engines pump out black smoke — and they are all pumping out smoke — it’s not hard to make the leap into the race territory,” she wrote.

The show “seems to be forever caught in British colonial times,” she said, complaining that Thomas and his train friends were continually kept in chains by Sir Topham Hatt, their “imperious, little white boss” and conductor.

She also complained that the show doesn’t have many female trains.

Racist, sexist and harmful to children? Really? That British blogger needs to get out more. Next she will condemn “Mary had a little lamb” because there is no boy and the lamb is white.

December 27, 2017

ISIS has lost 98 percent of the territory it once held -- with half of that terror terror group's so-called "caliphate" having been recaptured since President Trump took office less than a year ago, U.S. military officials said Tuesday.

The massive gains come after years of "onerous" rules, when critics say the Obama administration “micromanaged” the war and shunned a more intensive air strategy that could have ended the conflict much sooner.

For older people, getting out of the house regularly may contribute to a longer life - and the effect is independent of medical problems or mobility issues.

For study participants in their 70s, 80s and 90s, the frequency with which they left the house predicted how likely they were to make it to the next age milestone, researchers report in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Based on their responses to questions about how often they left the house, participants were grouped into three categories: frequently (six or seven days per week), often (two to five times per week) or rarely (once a week or less).

People who left the house frequently at any of the ages examined were significantly more likely to live to the next age group. For example, among people who left the house frequently, often or rarely at age 78, 71 percent, 67 percent and 43 percent, respectively, survived to age 85. Among people who left the house frequently, often or rarely at age 90, 64 percent, 56 percent and 38 percent, respectively, made it to 95.

Fueled by high consumer confidence and a robust job market, U.S. retail sales in the holiday period rose at their best pace since 2011, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks both online and in-store spending.

Sales, excluding automobiles, rose 4.9% from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve, compared with a 3.7% gain in the same period last year, according to the Mastercard Inc. unit, which tracks all forms of payment. E-commerce continued to drive the gains, rising 18.1%.

December 26, 2017

As more and more motorists follow satellite navigation apps to find addresses they are often led down residential streets. Cities are fighting back with turn restrictions, speed humps and even closing roads to outsiders.

Several years ago we did a test comparing the VZ Navigator on my Verizon phone with my daughters navigation on her Sprint phone. The Verizon navigation took us on arterial streets 95 percent of the way while Sprint Navigation took us on back roads which was probably the closest way.
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It’s done. The GOP has passed the most extensive tax reform in the past three decades. The $1.5 trillion cut will benefit America’s working and middle classes.

Republicans united, stuck to their guns, and passed it without help from the Democrats, who were not going to lift a finger to help the Trump White House get a key part of its agenda passed. In doing so, they betted against the American worker and hoped that millions of families get screwed to score political points. They thought this bill was Armageddon. It was not. It’ll benefit anywhere from 80-90 percent of America’s families. Businesses are increasing employee investment, handing out bonuses, boosting wages, and will increase philanthropic donations.

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (pictured) initiated the protests last year to bring attention to racial inequality and police brutality against minorities. Kaepernick is currently out of football, and relatively few players were demonstrating this season before the president stoked his feud with the NFL .

Criticism from players, owners and fans — and some praise — greeted Trump's remarks, which sparked a massive show of defiance that weekend, with more than 200 players protesting by choosing not to stand for the national anthem.

The president's feud with the NFL is the runaway winner for the top sports story of 2017 in balloting by AP members and editors.

The report at the link below is reporting the response by U.S. businesses to the biggest rewrite of the federal tax code since the 1980s Reagan administration and a tax cut of as much as $3.2 trillion in the form of their big list of tax-cut payoffs. The list will expand as more companies respond.

Women’s magazines are an area that the conservative movement often overlooks. They’ve become political.

For many young, college-educated women in urban areas it’s their source of news. And yes, it’s entirely liberal. Cosmopolitan issued endorsements in the 2014 midterms, where they announced that they would only support liberal, pro-choice candidates.

Hillary Clinton used this medium to try and rehabilitate her image by guest editing the December issue of Teen Vogue, with stories entirely about herself.